Commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,248 describes and illustrates in FIGS. 9 and 10 a hand-held stripping tool comprising a flat plate having a plurality of U-shaped stripping slots each dimensioned to receive a differently sized insulated wire which upon rotation of the tool will slit through the insulation so that upon pulling of the wire through the slot the insulation can be stripped off from the wire end. Since the lateral dimension of each slot is fixed, a differently-dimensioned slot is needed for each wire-size intended for stripping.
The chief object of the invention is a novel stripping tool with a single slot defined by stripping blades whose spacing can be adjusted by the user, with the result that the tool is capable of stripping the insulation from a plurality of differently sized wires.
Another principal object of the invention is a novel stripping tool capable of stripping the insulation from stranded or solid electrical wire, and from odd (non-standard) wire sizes.